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SMART CITIES & TECHNOLOGY

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Pitinan Piyavatin/Alamy Stock Photo

ARTICLE


HOW TECH CAN MAKE SURE EVERY VOICE IS HEARD IN CIVIL DISCOURSE


 * Written by Balaji Sreenivasan
 * 25th April 2023

 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 
 * 

The loudest voice in the room is the one that is heard. The person who can earn
the attention of the greatest number of people holds the most power. And this is
a serious problem for civil discourse. The loudest voice in a room is not always
representative of the majority, and a single voice cannot express the nuances of
a diverse community.



Technology has emerged as an early-stage solution to this challenge of
representation. Artificial intelligence (AI), for example, is already used to
gauge voter sentiment and predict results through election polling. Some AI
technology even pulls from public social media posting to craft a sample of
individuals who represent the United States. The power of these systems is that
real and accurate results are predicted and revealed without direction from
humans (beyond writing the algorithm).

These technologies are clear steps toward creating systems to measure and report
public feedback. With more representative data available, we will be able to
create more equitable communities. Here’s what it takes to build, adopt and
implement technology that ensures more equitable facilitation of civil
discourse.



AI must be built with equality and representation in mind.
To leverage the power of technology and ensure that every voice is heard in
civil discourse, we must first build systems that can accurately represent our
diverse communities. It is true that artificial intelligence can inherit the
biases of its creators. The National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST) published guidelines for determining and addressing these inherited
biases in AI technology.

Building AI with equality and representation in mind first requires clear and
accurate data that is representative of a diverse population. In practice, when
AI is employed in the context of civil discourse, it should be used to pull a
significant number of responses from a large network of respondents.
Additionally, AI systems and algorithms must also be adapted and adjusted
regularly to remain relevant and representative.

The report from NIST also indicated that evaluating the algorithm alone for bias
is not sufficient. AI must also be viewed through a critical lens that considers
the social and community factors that could affect responses, like how access to
social media (or access to the internet) may be limited in some communities,
preventing those communities from partaking in activities such as posting
online. Within the context of the initial example of AI used to determine voter
sentiment, this context is critical.

AI can remove subjectivity and ensure fair and accurate data reporting.
Traditionally, town meetings were the primary places where community feedback
was gathered, but data shows that these in-person meetings are not always
representative of the true demographics of the area (for straightforward reasons
like limited attendance at meetings or even administrative bias). AI can stand
in the gap here for modern communities and make it possible to collect a greater
volume of community feedback and then draw essential information from that
feedback. AI is a valuable tool for leaders, legislators, and those managing
large capital projects.

So how does AI deal with the loudest voice in the room and ensure that every
voice is heard in civil discourse? Algorithms can be trained to conduct semantic
analysis and even detect the severity of speech. These components make it
possible for the algorithm to filter out any noise so that the final data set
represents the community accurately. For example, in the context of capital
projects, gathering public feedback is built into the planning process and is
mandatory for the project to move forward. Capital projects include roads, water
systems, government buildings, and even some commercial, education, and health
care projects—all of which affect a diverse group of people dispersed across
cities and towns. Community feedback is essential if we want to actualize the
inclusive, equitable public spaces we so often discuss. With the use of AI,
community feedback can be gathered, analyzed and reported free from
administrative bias.

If we are to build more equitable communities, we must leverage new technologies
like AI to conduct more thorough, expansive and fair assessments of feedback.
Robust and accurate data about public sentiment as it relates to capital
planning projects and community investments will help leaders determine if the
infrastructure they are building serves the community it was intended to serve.
This is just one example of the important role AI can play in civil discourse,
but the value can extend further to topics like legislation, education, and
public systems. Artificial intelligence can help leaders filter out the noise
that is so prevalent in civil discourse to get to the core trends of public
feedback so that all voices are heard.



Balaji Sreenivasan is the founder and CEO of Aurigo Software Technologies, and
has played a critical role in shaping Aurigo to be a modern enterprise cloud
software business that helps capital owners plan with confidence, build with
quality and maintain their assets efficiently. With more than 40,000 projects
and more than $300 billion under management, Aurigo has earned several industry
accolades under Sreenivasan’s leadership, including Builtworld’s Infrastructure
50, GovTech 100, Constructech Top Products, and Inc. 5000. Sreenivasan is a
mechanical and aerospace engineer with a deep understanding of enterprise
software, blockchain and AI-ML technologies. He is an alumnus of the National
Institute of Technology (NIT), Trichy, the University of Florida, Gainesville,
and the Harvard Business School.

 


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homepage-featured-4 Administration Public Works & Utilities Smart Cities &
Technology Administration Public Works & Utilities Smart Cities & Technology
Article


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